April's Grievance Committee

 This is my third year on the Association's Grievance Committee. This month we were more than busy. Apparently there are a lot of unhappy folks out there and a few unethical agents. Together they had nothing better to do than fill out copious amounts of paperwork and submit them to the Association. The by-product is that you get something to read about. 

My case that I peer reviewed was a contract case. The buyer felt the seller didn't reply to something in a timely manner. The seller did reply. They answered, "No." which is in the boiler-plate of the contract. Answering "no" is a perfectly reasonable answer. However, the person making the complaint didn't agree with the seller's "no" response. We dismissed this part of the complaint. However, we did nail the seller on another Code of Ethics issue that arouse. 

The fun case--and to be honest, we see these way too often--was the buyer's agent who was mad her clients lost out on a house. The agent cited lots of articles, that namely boiled down to the agent's clients didn't get the house of their dreams. I got a bit animated in this one, and actually swayed a few folks to my point of view. My thought was this was a frivolous case and it was based on the conditions of the market and less on the actions of the selling agent. Sorry the buyers didn't get the house. But it isn't an ethical issue not to sell the one house on the market to every buyer that comes along.

And finally, to the buyers who decided to come to town three days before their home closed, break in and move into the home they would own in a couple of days: you stink! Your agent was cited for an ethical violation for your criminal breaking and entering.  And worse! You said your agent knew this and let you in the property! You lied, throwing your agent and their livelihood under the bus. 

You didn't own the property. The Phoenix metro area has hotels, hostels, campgrounds and Air BNBs, you could have stayed at. You lied to your agent, the seller and to the police and caused a lot of headaches for your own self-interests. Fortunately, your agent stood on her own two feet and appealed this code of ethics violation and a potential fine and license suspension. We dismissed it today because SHE did nothing wrong--you did. Imagine how much better your karma could have been if you hadn't done something so shady.